Small barn or Run in

[lynnmarie234]

So I’m fencing in my 3 acre pasture to finally get a few horses at home! I’m planning 2 mustangs, maybe a couple donks.

I honestly think the biggest appeal of the barn is for me more than the horses. The feeling of walking into a barn to nickering horses is just so appealing. And it would be nice to be out of the Northern Illinois winter for chores, so I would prob spend more time with them having a roof. But I wouldn’t be keeping the horses in stalls all day - they’d be free to come in and out, so as far as the horses comfort they probably have zero preference.

I can do a real nice 14x40 Run In for about $8k, which I can pay cash. A small barn would start at $25k, and I’d probably spend closer to $35k if I went that route which I’d need to finance…

I am a single lady hobby farmer - so while I rarely admit it, sometimes my farm can be a bit much.

So - thoughts? Has anyone been here before? Is a barn a life-changer and worth the money from day 1? Is a only having a Run-In not that bad?

[PrincessPonies]

I personally have stalls. They are two stalls and I have a shed for tack and feed. No barn isle or place to sit down. When we moved there was already a fenced in field with two covers and a full barn wasn’t in the budget. However my horse has twice in the last three years been on stall rest. Once after getting stitches that needed to stay dry when it stormed for a week and once after an injury that went on for months. Before the move it was decided that there had to be stalls just in case. As it is the pony we got after the move hates hates rain and for whatever crazy reason won’t use the cover provided and if in her stall won’t leave till the rain stops. Have a plain two stalls put up to go with the two sheds already on the property was less than 5000 where we are. I’m sure that would be different for you. At the end of the day it’ll really depend on what you think will work better for you, I had the advantage of owning the horse for six years before the move and knowing what she needed/wanted/preferred.

[CHT]

I would do the run in for now. You could make it with brackets to hang panels to make them stall like in case of an injury or some other reason you need to contain your horses. Then save for a barn, and keep an eye out for cost saving options. I have seen shelters which have a small tool shed at one end that can store tack and feed, or another option for storage could be a small seacan. You could even use the seacan as one wall of your shelter if you wanted.

[4LeafCloverFarm]

With just three acres - I’d build a nice shelter, with a good wide overhang + a lockable room for tack/feed on the end. Make sure your shed design allows for a horse to be “stalled” in case of injury/illness (like using 12’ gates or panels to enclose the section of shelter. Then spend some extra $ on making that 3 aces into one large pasture + 2 smaller paddocks. If the area allows - put the shed between the pasture and paddocks - so its accessible either way (from the paddocks or the pasture - but can be closed off to either).

[Texarkana]

Yes, I’ve been there.

You do not want to be without stalls in some form. I’m not saying this because I believe horses need to be stalled, but rather because horses are suicidal and will incapacitate themselves at the most inopportune time. You will need to have somewhere you can confine a sick or injured horse in a hurry. That can be as simple as hanging a few gates in the run-in that can be opened and closed as needed. But when your horse is standing in the pasture dangling a broken leg on Christmas Eve (true story), you don’t want to be figuring out where/how you’re going to lock them up.

In Nashville, we built a small, 2 stall shedrow that the horses and donkey had free access to. I had a large garden shed that doubled as a feed/tack room. Was it ideal? No. Did it work? Yes.

Now I have a 9 stall barn. It is so nice to have an aisle and proper tack room after doing without for so many years. But the trade-off is with more space comes more maintenance. But man, I love that aisle. :lol:

With all this said, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with doing a shed for now (and coming up with a way to make a stall for emergencies), then building a barn as money allows. You will need to think about storage options-- hay storage especially.

[Calvincrowe]

Consider your weather, land topography, water access, hay and feed storage, fencing, farrier and vet comfort, and a sacrifice area before making a decision. I would go for a barn- there are so many choices of design that could be more economical than you’ve described. With 3 acres, you’ll need to feed hay if you put 2-4 equines on land. Storage? Will you run power and water?

[Calvincrowe]

Consider your weather, land topography, water access, hay and feed storage, fencing, farrier and vet comfort, and a sacrifice area before making a decision. I would go for a barn- there are so many choices of design that could be more economical than you’ve described. With 3 acres, you’ll need to feed hay if you put 2-4 equines on land. Storage? Will you run power and water?

[walkinthewalk]

@4LeafCloverFarm

With just three acres - I’d build a nice shelter, with a good wide overhang + a lockable room for tack/feed on the end. Make sure your shed design allows for a horse to be “stalled” in case of injury/illness (like using 12’ gates or panels to enclose the section of shelter. Then spend some extra $ on making that 3 aces into one large pasture + 2 smaller paddocks. If the area allows - put the shed between the pasture and paddocks - so its accessible either way (from the paddocks or the pasture - but can be closed off to either).

^^^THIS makes the most sense.

Also, please know three acres is not much property – two horses and a couple of donkeys will make a mosh pit out of it as the grass will be gone in no time – you’re going to have to hay them all year long. You need a place to store some hay as you can’t always depend on a plentiful haying season to where someone can always supply you with hay — regardless of whether it’s rounds or small squares.

two horses would be better and safer as they would have some room to get away from each other.

I have to keep my two horses separated. One has ~19 acres, the other one has ~6 acres. Once Fall gets here, that one horse eats the six acres down to just about zilch. He has part of the yard and we stop mowing way ahead of the cool weather and shorter days because he eats it down. I will do one last mowing when the weeds and Dallis Grass get out of control.

While three acres sounds like a comfortable amount of land to manage, it may end up being more work, in the long run, if you don’t quickly learn how to carefully & properly manage horses on small acreage. I know there are great books that tell you how to do that but I am not familiar with them to make a recommendation. Hopefully someone else on small acreage can help with that:)

[DMK]

If I was going to do a run in, I would try to make it wider than 14’, maybe 20’ and give the horses 12’ and have a covered “aisle” area behind the run in, great for storing stuff, setting up cross ties, etc. Even if you have a separate tack room/cross tie area, it’s nice to have an enclosed area under the same roof as the stall/run in

Also, 40’ is a lot of run in space, maybe 36’ if you wanted to offset the cost of wider.

You could also set 12’ gates (or fencing with smaller gates) to divide the run in into 3 sections. That would create a little more peace and harmony at feeding time, and you could add a gate along the outside to create a stall if you ever had to keep someone up for whatever reason (and they are horses, there’s always going to be a reason)

[ElementFarm]

lots of good points above, and the importance of having a stall (or stall-like conversion option for part of the run-in) for injured/sick horses. Also, consider your vet and farrier? Where are you expecting him to work on a rainy, windy January day (or snowy-midnight for emergency stitches, true story)?

There are several barn options that aren’t necessarily a 40K big center aisle (though I love my aisle).
Libby has some good pictures in her blog of her shedrow with an aisle on one side of it. I also like the idea of a shedrow with large overhang, so you have stalls if required, but overhang/shelter the rest of the time.
I have one small paddock with an extra-large shed row style stall, that has an 8’ sliding door accessing the paddock. I can close it and use it as a stall (access through dutch doors in front) or leave the big door open and it’s a suitable run-in for 2 horses.

Definitely don’t underestimate how much space you’ll need to store hay, feed, shavings (for the emergency stall rest/injury situation), tack and supplies. And you want hay and tack storage to be accessible from outside the horse area so the feed store isn’t dealing with loose horses getting in the way of unloading.

I agree 10000% with 4LCF, and recommend you cross fence your pasture. 3 acres isn’t much, and a dry lot or medical paddock, and then 1-2 larger spaces for rotating grass, will do a lot to preserve your grass/land over time.

[2DogsFarm]

:yes: Everything @ElementFarm says.

If you go with just a run-in for that many animals you better hope they all get along.
I’m in the Midwest too & I would hate to have one of my 3 kept from shelter by a bully.
You could do as a friend does & build a manger with ties for each horse in the run-in so they can be separated when she feeds hay & grain. But that means catching, haltering, tieing each one & then repeating in reverse once they’re done,
She also has room for a hayfeeder in the run-in & fills that when weather is bad so they can eat sheltered.

3ac for 4 pretty much means you will be feeding hay year-round.
I have 3 - TWH, Hackney Pony & mini - on close to that: 2 pastures, 1 2+ac, the other less than an acre. Both connect to my sacrifice paddock.

I built a small (36x36) center-aisle barn, put in two 12X12 box stalls & added a smaller box for the mini that does not yet have access at the rear. Stall doors to the paddock are open 24/7. Barn acts as a run-in, but makes feeding easy for me - they come in on their own, go into a stall - & can be stalled for vet & shoer.
My TWH is Boss & graciously shares with the mini for feeding & napping. I sometimes find all 3 in a single stall.

Consideration for your Pros - vet & shoer - is not optional, IMO. Both need a place out of the weather to work.

I am also doing this solo, it will be 15yrs in March.
Worked 4DW up to 5yrs ago.
It is no cakewalk, but I love it.

[Trimming]

I have donkeys in a large dry lot. I do have pasture but they stay in their dry lot 95% of the time with hay.

I built a 20x24 pole building:

It contains a 10x16 storage room for tack/hay/feed, an 8x10 stall with full width sliding door (I have small donkeys) and a 10x20 covered run in area. The stall opens to the run in area and most of the time, the sliding door is open so they have access to that space. The run in area can be accessed from two sides from the dry lot.

I have their water buckets in the run in area, so I can feed and water them in the winter under a roof.

[Bluey]

Here are some ideas for sheds, some with gates making them a stall, some with tack/feed rooms in them:

https://gobobpipe.com/horsesheds.htm

[Arigold]

Caring for horses during a IL winter is not enjoyable. Just a point to consider. I cannot imagine doing so without a center isle barn. You and the horses need to get out of the blowing snow, a run-in will not be sufficient for those days. And remember running water needs to be piped to barn/run-in or you will be constantly breaking ice in the water trough. And they may not drink enough water if always ice cold. As others have stated, you will need to feed hay year round. Likely needing to store about 200 small bales along with space for shavings. So I would wait until you can comfortably spend the money on a barn, even a shed row would be miserable in the winter (more for you then the horses).

[2DogsFarm]

@Bluey for the WIN! :yes:
Sounds to me like the best solution yet.

[lynnmarie234]

Thanks for all the input everyone! Obviously like a barn is certainly preferred. I do have hay storage on the other side of the property - I have 2 RV-size Shelter Logic tents that store about 400 bales. But, I feel like I’ll be lucky if those last me 2 more years so I certainly am keeping hay in my plans.

So like a few people suggested - I’m liking the idea of doing a run-in now (with some panels to make a stall if need be), and saving for a nice barn in a couple years. The run-in can always just move to the end of one of the pastures for extra shelter once the barn is done.

The area is kind of L shaped, so I’m planning to make a mud lot with the barn or run in at the corner of the L -then it will be in the middle with 1 pasture on one side and 2 on the other to rotate.

I hear your concerns about the # of animals on the acreage,… I’ll have make some choices, maybe 2 donkeys and 1 horse for a few years. I do hate mud. I have my eye on the an extra 5 acre plot next door, but one thing at a time!

The idea of a multipurpose barn sounds like great advice. And having a couple stalls in the front part, big run-in area, and some hay storage – then the next people can make a wood shop or car garage or whatever.

I think i can have enough saved in 2 years to pay cash for the barn, plus it will give me time to rezone from Residental Ag (barn has to be less square feet than house) to Ag (bigger barn, lower taxes!).

Thanks again!

[poltroon]

You mentioned mustangs - if you’re thinking BLM adoption, note that their list of acceptable facilities is reasonably specific and strict, so you’ll want to be sure you plan accordingly.

[lynnmarie234]

@poltroon

You mentioned mustangs - if you’re thinking BLM adoption, note that their list of acceptable facilities is reasonably specific and strict, so you’ll want to be sure you plan accordingly.

Yeah - 6’ pens until they’re gentled. But I know my skill level - I haven’t a trained a horse for going on 10 years now, so I’m going to adopt one thats already been gentled and had some initial training

[Calvincrowe]

I have a ‘multi purpose’ building-- my barn is actually a 36x60 steel pole building designed to be a shop for the former owner of our place, it came with our 5 acre mini farm. We’ve converted it to house 3 horse stalls (12 x12, Priefert stall components, sliders to the inside, Dutch doors to the 12x48 foot overhang we added (horses only have access to 36 feet of that. Inside, we have a 12x24 feed room/bedding storage space which also houses spare pallets and steel fence posts (DH likes to stack things where he shouldn’t…). There’s a loft space above that. Did I mention my ceilings are ridiculously tall, as in RV parking tall?? UGH… I hate it! Along the west wall, with the stalls, is our hay storage space. I can fit 6 tons of hay (big 120lb bales) in a 12x20ish space–it’s a tall stack. Along the east wall after the storage space, under the stairs to the loft, is our chicken coop, then lumber storage along that wall (also where wheelbarrows and spreaders are parked), then a workbench space for projects, with lots of cupboards for tools and equipment.

Ours is smooth concrete except where stalls are (that space was still gravel when we bought it…convenient!). It’s slick. I use rolled rubber matting along the entire length of the barn from stalls to big door. We had to cut the Dutch doors in. Our pole building doesn’t have any of the clear panels in the eaves or roof. I highly wish we had them-- it’s incredibly dark in there with the doors shut in bad weather. We have lights and water (we had to put water in, so glad we did!!).

We have very limited pasture. The land is 5 acres but 2 of it is unusable due to slope and creek. So I feed hay year round and baby my fields. We pick manure, drag, spray and fertilize every year. I limit turnout and keep them in our large mud-free sacrifice area (screenings/pea gravel footing).

Good luck-- I hope you plan, plan, plan before executing the big decisions. See where the water goes before you build a barn and sacrifice paddock.

[js]

Why not look at some of the prefab run in sheds that are built and delivered?
Don’t go indebt on a barn, buy what you can afford that will suffice for the horses; ensure you have adequate fencing.